Fainaru fantajî V

Even the worst final fantasy game is still pretty fun. But this game is still mediocre. It had a lot of hype built up because it wasn't released in the US for several years . But the game it self really isn't that good. The story-line is a loosely strung series of events that eventually involve a generic evil guy in a helmet named exdeath. At one point Butz says "you won't get away with this" and exdeath says "And just what do you think It is that I'm trying to get away with." Indeed Butz doesn't know, and neither did I, nor did I particularly care up to that point. However when he answers that question the game turns around for the better. The story is given a point and there are plenty of secrets to discover. Too bad there is only a little bit more of the game left. The job system is fun but not enough so to carry the game by itself. The game is still decent, but is hardly worthy of the rest of the series. I spent most of the game waiting for something to happen. When it finally did I had to wonder if it was worth the effort.

Originally released on the Super Nintendo in Japan, Final Fantasy V never found its way to the states in its original form. But a few years ago it was re-released on the Playstation with Final Fantasy VI in a collection of the two games called Final Fantasy Anthologies.

Final Fantasy V follows the adventures of a love traveler named Bartz. He and his pet chocobo Boko were startled one night as a meteor came crashing down not far from their camp. Upon examination of the meteor they find an old man by the name of Galuf who seems to have amnesia caused by the meteors impact. Nearby as well, is Reina, the princess of the kingdom of Tycoon. You are joined shortly thereafter by Faris, the saltiest pirate on the seas. The four set out to find Reina's father, the king of Tycoon, as well as to protect the four crystals of Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth.

So there's chocobos and crystals and whatnot, but what makes this game stand out? Well, the crystals give your characters powers. You are able to equip each character with a job class and they can then level up each of their jobs, giving them abilities from that job class that can be equipped later. For example: one of your characters is equipped with the Black Mage job and they gain a level. They are then given the ability Black 1 which allows them to cast Black Magic. But you can then change their job to say, a Knight, and then equip the Black 1 ability as well. Or maybe you want a Monk that can use Blue Magic. Perhaps you want a White Mage that can hold its weapon with 2 hands for double the power (a Knight ability). This unique and functional system lets the player play how they want, and gives them tons of possibilities.

The usual good stuff is in here too. The plot starts out simple with you protecting the crystals but soon escalates to encompass so much more. The characters are all interesting in their own aspect and all have their own mysterious back stories, some of which intertwine a bit. As usual in any FF game, the mood is set well by Nobuo Uematsu's compositions. The beautiful and diverse soundtrack accompanies your journey well, and rarely gets annoying or repetitive.

This game, while following the same pattern as most Final Fantasy's, differs greatly with its job class system to give it an extremely unique touch. It's an old school game with a great feel and a must have for any FF or RPG fan. I give it 8 and 1/2 out of 10. Ya can't beat that 8-bit goodness.

It took me nine years to finally play through and win this Final Fantasy game. That right there should tell you this one is a bit different. The story is your standard Final Fantasy fare. A traveler, a princess, a pirate, and a mysterious man with amnesia go on a quest to try and stop the destruction of the elemental crystals: Earth, wind, fire and water. They are also searching for the father of the princess. In the end an evil entity named X-Death is set free and he has plans to capture a terrifying power that threatens not one, but two worlds! What sets this one apart and causes it to be sort of a pain too is the job system. Similar to that found in Final Fantasy X-2, but more involved you switch between classes, gain their powers and in the end decide what powers will help you totally tear X-Death apart. The jobs though can take awhile to build up, now that I have a very good sized music collection it is not so bad, but it gets rather boring just leveling up with the same old music playing. The final boss in this one was somewhat tough too, until I read a strategy on beating him, then adding a few of my own touches it was a breeze. So in the end I liked six a bit better, however, this one was a rather good entry into the final fantasy universe. I think it is also the first one to feature Moogles, however, I may be wrong on that point. You also have a wide array of vehicles in this one to use to, from chocobos to airships, and even a submarine. However, the story is a bit short, I won it in thirty hours and I spent a good ten or more of that leveling.

My potentially blithering hot take is that this is the best of the first five Final Fantasy titles. Its story is nothing to write home about, but that has little to do with my assessment of the game as its story is about as good as any of the first five (the epilogue is uniquely awful, though- it's essentially an incredibly tedious clip show of all of the greatest hits of the adventure). Final Fantasy V, like its predecessors, has two-dimensional characters that lack complexity and have no arcs. Also like its predecessors, the plot amounts to a series of bland fetch quests and has little in the way of textured world-building. Something something crystals something something balance something something entity wanting to destroy that balance and take over the universe. It took awhile for the world in each Final Fantasy title to actually feel like a place with its own history and internal logic. The exception to this blandness is, as usual, Nobuo Uemtasu's whimsical score, the endlessly creative creature designs, and the splashy backgrounds. Those elements do quite a bit of heavy lifting to really convey that unique Final Fantasy vibe, but they feel separate and irrelevant to the main narrative.

Where the game rises above the previous titles is in its job system and difficulty curve. The job system allows for your character to gain abilities in different jobs and then mix and match those abilities to create fun synergistic combos. Throughout the entire game I was constantly adjusting which classes I wanted to level up based on which combinations seemed to be more successful. The game even somewhat forces experimentation because different bosses require different strategies to overcome. My only complaint about the job system is that some abilities take eons to obtain, especially in the first two thirds of the game. If you are playing blind, you also risk putting in many hours of grinding only to find out that the next ability your character receives was not worth the effort. Still, the amount of creativity and strategy that the game allows for is impressive considering that each job allows for only one extra ability you have earned from another job.

Two aspects I was consistently delighted by were the substantial difficulty of many of the bosses and the best difficulty curve of the first five games- the game's difficulty is incredibly even and gradual (with the requisite spike in the end, of course). I never had to grind and usually just had to play around with my party job and equipment setup in order to overcome a boss. Even the last boss was beatable by just learning from each defeat and making adjustments. I got a little lucky on my final attempt because Neo-Exdeath missed a lot, but the battle didn't feel like pure luck at a lower level like the final boss of FF IV did (I had to lower the active time battle speed settings to win that one).

Final Fantasy has a nothing story, but it was the first of the original five 2D Final Fantasy games where I didn't feel like I was rushing at the end to get it over with. The level design was quite varied and each featured different types of puzzles instead of long, boring hallways like in the first four games. It's just a shame that the story was so perfunctory because that is the only aspect that would hold me back from wanting to replay it someday. I often found myself glazing over during the dialogue scenes and frequently lost track of the plot due to disinterest. The gameplay, however, was a treat.

Final Fantasy V was first released in Japan but it came to the outer world nearly ten years later. After I've played this game with SNES emulator it's easy to understand why.

First the good news. Final Fantasy V has an excellent job system that is more developed version from Final Fantasy III. There's a wide selection from different jobs including common fighter, thief and couple of mages and uncommon dragoon, samurai and many others. What even better, all special skills are saved even if a player decides to change classes. Only down side is that some of the classes, like geomancer, mediator or dancer, are completely useless.

The bad thing in this game is the atmosphere. Story about stopping evil Exdeath from destroying elemental crystals and the everything else just feels to make excuses to point colorless characters to go in different places. Although it's revealed enough their past that they are somehow interesting they have not any characteristics to make them feel close. Plus white-armored Exdeath with no clear motivation for wanton destruction is probably one of the dullest main villains ever in any media. Only good character is Exdeath's first-in-command Gilgamesh who has charisma and funny dialog. Even the music has decreed from Final Fantasy IV's excellency to mediocre.

Final Fantasy V is good as hack'n slash game but because of its sterile story, characters, music and even graphics it feels like work of engineers rather than artists.